As If - by Isabel Waidner (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

A slender, sly, and profoundly intelligent novel about two strangers who swap lives to find new ones: a story of aspiration, ambition, and the possibility of radical newness.

Two men meet in an apartment in London. They are strangers to one another, and yet they look remarkably alike. Lewis is grieving his dead wife; Korine is hiding from his very-much-alive one. Lewis never had children; Korine has just walked out on his. Lewis is a retired actor whose career never amounted to much beyond a bit part on a B-list sitcom; Korine has always dreamed of acting.

Slowly and then all at once, each begins to live on the other's behalf. As Korine answers a casting call under Lewis's name, Lewis finds himself playing father to the other man's son. Each day the strange ruse becomes truer and stranger, more entrenched. Plunged into an existential game of cat-and-mouse, pursuit and retreat, they find that acting might make it possible to, finally, live.

Isabel Waidner's As If is a wily, propulsive, and unusually wise novel about what happens when we fall out of our roles and attempt to make new ones: a tale of thwarted expectation, renewed ambition, and the possibility of escape. It is the story of two men, or maybe one: a love story and a ghost story both.

Review Quotes

Advance Praise

"As If holds a multiplying and expanding universe, whose characters are both wonderfully strange and wickedly human. At once twisty and delicious, beautiful and imaginative, this is a book that will surprise you in the best way possible."
--Kristen Arnett, author of Stop Me If You've Heard This One

"An audacious and enchanting novel, As If explores life's alternatives--fantasies and nightmares, encounters dreaded and desired, opportunities lost and gained--in an ingenious setting. We enter its world of doubles and mirror images with a thrill and leave with a deeper understanding of our own naked hearts."
--Yiyun Li, author of Things in Nature Merely Grow

"Every page is exhilarating."
--Deborah Levy, author of August Blue and The Man Who Saw Everything

"As If is an entirely new species of fiction: a spellbindingly clever and profound romp; an urgent exploration of contemporary masculinity in love with, and at war, with itself; a story of desire, art, and redemption. Isabel Waidner is the heir to many legends--Kafka, Bosch, Monty Python, Jonathan Swift--and their new novel summons gorgeous, canny, comedic tulips from the austerity-hammered present. A total stunner."
--Jordy Rosenberg, author of Confessions of the Fox

"A brilliant, strange and tender exploration of what it is to fail, keep failing, and fail better."
--Sarah Bernstein, author of Study for Obedience

About the Author